Somewhere in 9th Century Scandinavia the mysterious Helmut (Cameron Mitchell) arrives at a small house looking for food and rest, but finds the woman inside to be unwilling to help and he is sent on his way. Moments later though, he sees two men attacking the house and returns to help her. She turns out to be Karin, wife of King Harald who has been missing for three years on an expedition to Europe, who is being targetted by Hagen, who is claiming the throne for himself and wants her as his wife. Helmut stays to look after her, but it soon emerges that he is not everything he seems to be...Knives of the Avenger is a rather hard to define film - dating from the end of the European adventure movie boom, that saw mythological heros, swashbuckling pirates and vicious Vikings brought to the screen in a series of colourful and epic adventures, and made in a year that saw the Spaghetti Western boom really kick off, the film resembles a cross between the two genres, with the usual pitched battles of the adventure films replaced by a smaller scale and very personal conflict, and with many traditional Western clichés - the lone horse riding hero, the fight scene in a tavern and the waves of henchman that are sent to take out the hero, before he finally clashes with his rival. More unusually though, the emphasis here is not on action scenes, with the plot acting almost as filler (as was the case with many of the adventure films of the time), but on deep characterisation and plot development, with very vague boundaries between hero and villain. It is this that gives the film genuine tension and suspense, with the audience able to really care for the characters, that is not to say that there is no action however, and the film boasts several exciting fight scenes, made all the more tense by the genuine characterisation. Accordingly though, the pacing is quite slow, but the film certainly never drags, and it builds to a nail-biting conclusion.

From a historical perspective Knives of the Avenger is a very interesting film, being the first Viking film to focus on internal conflicts rather than the exploration and pillaging of Britain and Europe, and would seem to be the inspiration for the later 'authentic' Viking films Hrafninn Flýgur (1984) and Viking Sagas (1995). As far as historical accuracy goes, some details such as the Völva (the female Shaman seen at the beginning of the film) are authentic for the Viking era, while the use of a recurve bow (seen in the picture above) is subject to some debate - although like many films of the time, such authenticity is likely to be purely co-incidental, especially considering the low budget and troubled production.

Mario Bava was not initially attached to this project, but as happened many times in his career, he was brought on board to salvage a production that had been halted, this time by the producers simply running out of money. With a limited budget, he apparently rewrote and re-shot almost the entire film in a matter of days. The end result certainly does not resemble a typical Bava film, with lots of location shoots, and none of the exotically lit studio sets for which he is best known - but fortunately it does look very good throughout, with a sense of realism not present in many of his other productions. The wide-ranging Euro-cult composer Marcello Giombini (Sabata (1969)) provides the soundtrack and in keeping with the tone of the film, it is very Western style.
American born Cameron Mitchell was king of the B-movies, and had a long run in European cinema, working three times with Mario Bava - he gives yet another strong performance here as the rugged hero and certainly convinces in the fight scenes. The very widely travelled character actor Giacomo Rossi-Stuart gets a short but noticable role as King Harald, while the beautiful Elissa Pichelli who plays his wife, marks this as her only film credit, despite a good performance.

Knives of the Avenger is a rather unexpected film; resembling a Viking Western, it boasts some incredibly strong characterisation and storyline development, with solid direction and acting throughout. Certainly not for anyone just wanting an action movie, this should appeal to those who enjoy more carefully paced and plot based films. Fans of Mario Bava should certainly seek this out, showing that he could make very different movies to that which he was most famous for. For those interested in Viking history, this film is not the most accurate, but shows what a lot of day-to-day conflicts would have been like. Highly recommended.

All text in this review written by Timothy Young - 6th August 2007.
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.

Please contact: